


Arms of Sleep

by FallenWings21



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Nightmares, secret santa gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 12:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17344913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenWings21/pseuds/FallenWings21
Summary: When a nightmare shakes Lotor from sleep he finds comfort in two of his favorite people.





	Arms of Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is a secret santa present for dejavidetc on Tumblr! 
> 
> I definitely floundered for a while but I hope you enjoy it! Merry Christmas/Happy winter solstice/Happy new year!

 

Everything Lotor saw was blinding white.

It was energy so pure and encompassing that it sunk past his skin and flooded his veins with molten stardust.

The air was thick on his tongue, sweet like candy floss and filling his lungs with ocean mist and iron dust. It buzzed in his blood, a hurricane of potential- it was invigorating and strange and _powerful_... and dangerous.

Thoughts, or maybe memories echoed through him.

_He could end the war with power like this! He would be a savior! They all said he was foolish but who would be laughing now? Not his father, dead in the ground. Not his mother, the twisted shell of shadows she was. Not his generals who had slipped their blades into his back. Not Voltron and the pathetic children who piloted it. Not the princess Allura who would never know the true alchemic destiny she could have had._

Wait...

The first curling tendril of unease slipped under his heartbeat, thudding with each uncertain pulse as the warmth grew stronger, heavier. These thoughts... These _emotions_. They curdled in his mind, his and not his. Truth and a falsity so strong he struggled against it. He would never speak these words, had never experienced these poisonous feelings. But they rang in his own voice all the same.

In the span of a comet's birth a spiraling zoetrope flashed past his eyes- an unfamiliar ship set to pierce the boundary between realities. A childhood stolen by hatred and greed. Faces he knew but wearing expression foreign and wrong. A fight so violent it chilled his blood and warped him into something he was never meant to be. A void of loneliness so raw and gaping it would never be bridged.

Suddenly the air stuck in his lungs, too viscous to exhale- white light expanding his ribcage and filling his chest with a force too wild and archaic to be contained in mortal flesh.

Burning. He was _burning_.

Hands clawed at his throat and he couldn't tell if they were his own or some beast of the light he couldn't see. His voice was trapped in his chest, not a sound escaping as his bones melted and his skin spilt and the white was leaking out now and he still couldn't breathe as he struggled for something, for _anything_. Someone help him, please!

The last unfamiliar thought that trickled through his mind was a throbbing exposed nerve.

_Not like this..._

\-----

It was with a sudden inhale of castle air that found Lotor blinking wildly into the dim light of his room. His heartbeat pulsed wildly in his ears and under his breastbone, the rush of adrenaline pumping through his veins making him tremble even as the walls and familiar furnishings solidified around him.

It was just a dream.

A shaky exhale fluttered a lock of silver hair and he pushed it out of his face, ignoring the damp lengths that curled at his neck. The clock on the side dresser blinked an ungodly hour and he stifled a sigh. Sleep had abandoned him at a very inconvenient time.

His eyes tipped left to the tangle of limbs beside him where Lance slept peacefully, hair sticking up in disarray and drool accumulating on his pillow. The dim glow of the castle lights cast lash shadows across his cheeks, face unguarded and soft in slumber. At least someone was getting some rest- though the bed was missing it's third member.

A soft smile touched his lips as he tucked a stray strand out of Lance's eyes before sliding out of bed and retreating into the hallway. If sleep was going to play games then he refused to chase it. The cold castle walls ushered him deeper and promised clarity in its halls.

He wandered aimlessly but perhaps his subconscious intuitively knew where it would find solace.

One hand pressed against a scanner later revealed a room that was dark and still, stars lazily drifting past the big glass window as the hum of the castle engines vibrated softly beneath the floor.

At first glance the space was empty but a second look had an exasperated sigh passing Lotor's lips and curling a smile onto his face.

"Shiro, do you have _any_ idea what time it is?"

The Shiro shaped lump near the window stiffened before gray eyes met his, a sheepish smile answering his own. "Ah- no? I take it pretty late?" His eyebrows furrowed and he twisted his lips. "Or pretty early? Depending on how you look at it?"

Lotor slid onto the floor beside him with a hum, shoulders brushing as he observed the galaxy before them.

"We'll go with pretty early, it sounds less dreadful."

Shiro slid an arm over his shoulders, tucking them closer together. "Why are you up?" He asked gently.

"A dream. Far more vivid and unsettling than normal." He murmured, the visions still sour in his mind.

Shiro hummed his sympathy before Lotor continued.

"It was just a mess of subconscious drivel that means nothing..." His voice stilled as a meteor streaked by the glass and he drew a measured breath.

The silence hung between them for a moment, Shiro waiting patiently for Lotor to gather his thoughts.

Dark purple eyes met gunmetal. "Nothing, and yet- I still hear the words and cries and so sleep eludes me." He chuckled bitterly, dropping the eye contact. "Foolish."

"It's not." Shiro cut in quickly, warm hand lacing their fingers together. "You had a nightmare, it's perfectly normal."

Lotor huffed a humorless laugh.

"Galra do not have nightmares."

The flat tone sunk a stone in Shiro's belly. The words fell so measured and practiced it was though they'd been spoken a thousand times before.

Or heard a thousand times.

Shiro swallowed the questions on his tongue, the truth easy enough to discern without voicing them. He redirected the conversation instead.

"Well, humans do- and I know Alteans do too because Allura and I have shared tea in the middle of the night before."

"I am only half Altean." He muttered and Shiro glanced to where Lotor rested his head on his shoulder, bottom lip pursed. A fond sigh eased out of Shiro's lungs as he rubbed a thumb over Lotor's knuckle.

"Keith has nightmares sometimes, he's half galra." He offered.

The silence thickened and Shiro could feel Lotor turning the words over in his head, inspecting them for flaws. He let him stew, admiring the blue jeweled planet with a fine layer of stardust ringing it coasting by the glass.

He didn't have to wait long.

"It's ridiculous to be this unnerved by unconscious hallucinations. It nothing but weakness given power."

Shiro's smile was dipped in mischief. "I have nightmares," he began. "You've seen me have them, and there are nights when I cannot sleep because of them." Tonight being one such night.

A warm palm slipped up to cup Lotor's cheek, thumb stroking the soft skin there while Shiro coaxed Lotor to meet his gaze.

"Do you think I'm weak?"

The answer was instantaneous.

"Of course not."

Arms came up to circle Shiro and tug him closer, breathing deeply into the skin at his neck. There wasn't a reality where he would ever consider the battle worn but still compassionate man in his embrace anything resembling weak.

_Oh_.

"I realize what you're doing." He mumbled into warm skin as fingers began trailing up and down his back.

"Is it working?" Shiro murmured, pressing a soft kiss to his pulse point.

A soft hum vibrated Lotor's chest as the familiar safety and warmth of Shiro's arms soothed the ugly thoughts.

"Perhaps, but we might need to stay like this a little longer."

Shiro huffed a laugh, fingers threading through silver hair. "Whatever you need."

The soft swish of the door opening caught their attention, both glancing back as a sleepy looking Lance lingered in the doorway.

"What're you two doing?" Lance's sleep rough voice washed over them, the bleary eyed boy in question rubbing his nose as he padded barefoot towards them and draped himself over them both.

"Sorry," Shiro said softly as he adjusted his grip to accommodate the new addition. "Couldn't sleep."

Lance hummed, pressing himself closer and unable to stifle a yawn. "Woke up alone, its cold without you two space heaters." He snickered under his breath as he stretched and tucked himself between them comfortably. "Heh, _space_ heaters."

Lotor chuckled, lifting a hand to smooth out a lock of hair that was determined to stick straight up on Lance's head. "Apologizes, your space heaters didn't mean to leave you all nebu-lone."

Silence.

"Oh my gosh, I'm rubbing off on him!" Lance crowed at the same time Shiro groaned.

"I don't know if I can deal with two of you." He grumbled but the smile on his face took the edge off.

Lance scrunched back down with another laugh, a deep sigh settling him more closely between them. "Can we just stay here? The stars look amazing in this galaxy." 

Lotor knew that was Lance-speak for- _I'm comfortable and don't want to get up._

"Don't complain when you wake up with a stiff neck." Shiro warned and Lance huffed, already closing his eyes.

"I would never."

The three said nothing more as the stars whirled by, content in their bubble of warmth and calm. It settled Lotor's thoughts and finally banished the lingering unease. He was with the two people he cared about most, whatever he saw wasn't _his_ reality, would never be and looking between Shiro's warm smile and Lance's already softly snoring face he found the peace to shut his eyes and fall back into the arms of sleep- especially when they felt like the two people he loved most.

 

 


End file.
